1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fluidic control circuits, and more particularly to a fluidic gain changer applicable to V/STOL flight control.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Gain change is a function often required in fluidic circuits. The needs vary from a simple gain adjustment to account for circuit-to-circuit variations to a gain change as a scheduled function of a secondary variable. Often the required range of change is only slight, but it could be vary large in some applications such as for V/STOL. Changing gains as a linear function of another variable results in multiplication which is occasionally required in fluidic circuits.
Currently there are no fluidic devices ideally suited to the V/STOL flight control application. There are numerous concepts for gain changes that change gain over a limited range, i.e., less than 9 to 1, but only a few have higher performance on the gain range, i.e., greater than 10 to 1. Whereas a complementary gain charger having two outputs that change gain in the opposite fashion could be built as a combination of two independent gain changers, no complementary device exists.
Therefore, it is desired to have a two-channel complementary fluidic gain changer having a conventional fluidic input pressure signal and gains that can be adjusted from zero to maximum by means of a mechanical position input, the gain changer being capable of a 50 to 1 range.